How to make cannelés in silicone molds

SO, um, canelés. Or should it be cannelés? (Those little cakes with a crunchy caramelized exterior and a custardy interior). No matter how you spell them, I’ve made them before, right? A couple of times… I will also admit to eating a LOT of canelés over the summer of 2014 in France (my favourite ones came from Bernard Meysan in Saint-Emilion) – until last fall, I’ve been meaning to make them for years, ever since I read all Pim’s posts about making canelés (and her success using the silicone molds), as opposed to the copper ones which cost an arm and a leg!). My early attempts were perhaps beginner’s luck… Laughing as I write this post to read that back in October I said:

I’m keen to keep trying these as the recipe is dead easy.

LOL big time. The recipe itself might be “dead easy” (it honestly takes 15 minutes to prepare the batter) but getting the technique right has been a labour of love over the past 4 months. they have become what macarons were to me in 2010. So when Redpath’s Acts of Sweetness team contacted me to ask if I would like to be a part of #projectcannelé, I jumped at the chance. They sent me some silicone molds to try out and it turned out these were the ones I had previously had inconsistent results with so I was even more keen to “get it right”.

Back in the fall when I was first starting to experiment with these, I bought a number of different sized silicone molds to try out (and I had a lengthy email exchange with Dorie and her assistant about which size, which brand etc…) and the ones I liked then were not quite “mini” size – too small and they are simply too small to get a decent custard/ crust ratio and the larger ones are too big (unless they are taking the place of a meal. Ahem.).

Turns out that things change and over what must be 30 half-batches, I’ve discovered there are a number of factors in play which contribute to the success (or otherwise) of cannelés and the molds are a huge part of this, so whilst I really liked the size of the molds I had used last year, they aren’t the ones I’ll be using from now on..

But wait… what’s this about the random different spelling of the name of these treats? Well, according to Paula Wolfert, the little cakes were not so popular until the mid 1980s when :

In 1985, stunned by this surge in popularity, 88 Bordeaux patissiers formed a confrérie, or brotherhood, to protect the integrity of their canelés. They staged a “linguistic coup d’etat” by removing one of the n’s from the old spelling (cannelé) to differentiate their cake, with its secret method of preparation, from bastardized versions. Today, canelé de Bordeaux is the official cake of the city, while cannelé bordelais is a generic name used [around the world].

So, since we’re making these outside Bordeaux, we’ll go with cannelé…

Et hop. On y va with the months-long experiment. I’ve drastically condensed the information in this post to what I consider the bare minimum from what I have learned (lest anyone else tell me “life’s short, move on” as one helpful commenter did on a recent Instagram post… I say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say…..”) but “bon courage” – there’s still a lot to read.

Cannelé trial and error: a summary

For each of these trials (except the very last round) I used Dorie Greenspan’s recipe from Baking Chez Moi which you can find here. As I said, I probably have made over 30 half-batches in the past four months so I’m going to sum up my findings under some distinct categories according to the techniques I used.

1. Silicone molds coated in beeswax and butter.

This is the traditional coating for a cannelé mold and it’s how the little cakes get their rich colour on the outside. Chez Pim, amongst others, offers a lengthy explanation on how to work with beeswax and butter to coat the molds and I happened to get my hands on some food-grade wax from a bee-keeping friend…

I found the wax hard to work with using the silicone molds – it hardens almost immediately it touches the molds and it is NOT fun to remove from your brushes or other kitchen utensils. For me, using these molds with beeswax/butter produced uneven rising and “wonky” looking cannelés. Food-grade beeswax, it turns out, is not so easy to get your hands on so I might not be promoting this method for the average home-baker.

they look great on the top but…

Wonky, right? To get them the right colour on the outside, I feel like I nearly had to overbake them – the interior was quite dry. They also “fell” quite a bit as they cooled, meaning the custardy interior wasn’t quite right…

2. Silicone molds coated in melted butter.

I feel this method is more like what most people will use. For this batch, I coated the molds in melted butter then froze them for about 30 minutes before baking them in the hot oven. I was fairly happy with the results and should have possibly left well enough alone at that point…

I wasn’t super happy with the insides of these ones – again, I felt like to get the exterior the colour I wanted, they were *nearly* overbaked on the insides… More cake than custard.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, and because I had read so many places how you DIDN’T need to coat the silicone molds with anything , I decided to do a side-by side experiment in the same tray. I left one row of molds uncoated, coated one row with beeswax and butter (you can see below how hard it is to get a very light coating) and coated one row with melted butter.

Watching them in the oven was fascinating (if you are into that sort of thing)… But you can definitely see how differently the molds operate with different (or no) coating.

In the end, I decided that the UNCOATED molds were the ones which worked best…

From top: uncoated, coated with melted butter, coated in beeswax/butter:

As you can see, the beeswax/butter coated molds behaved oddly this time, producing “creases” in the cannelés. The butter coated molds produced wonky cannelés which didn’t stand up straight while the uncoated molds produced straight, uncreased cannelés.

And the interiors?

Again, the uncoated molds produced the best interiors (although I feel like these were slightly overbaked and a little dry too…

I found myself in Australia unexpectedly at this point in my research and sans my cannelé molds (though I did take them to France… as you do!). I spent a few days hunting down the molds (they mostly go by the name of “Bordelais” in Australia from what I understand and they are NOT easy to find…). In the end I happened across these Mastrad molds which are slightly bigger and a much thicker quality silicone and, since beggars can’t be choosers, I snapped them up. I liked that they have a rigid edge so they are easier to handle:

This time, I coated the molds in melted butter, room temperature butter (I applied with my fingers a thin coat) and left a few uncoated (as per the instruction on the package). I baked these for 30 minutes at 450˚F and 30 minutes at 400˚F per Dorie’s instructions, however they needed a little extra time to get the colour right on the outside – so they stayed an extra 10 minutes in the oven.

You can see that while the room temperature and melted butter coated molds produced gorgeous custardy interiors and straight-sided cannelés, the uncoated molds produced odd humps on the bottoms meaning they don’t stand up straight. So, not a disaster but not ideal either… the thicker molds definitely seemed to produce a much more even heat colouring (but the butter definitely helped there too).

For my final round of experimenting, I tweaked the recipe a bit. I was really happy with the results of the previous iteration of the cannelés but wanted to try a couple more times to double check that this was, indeed the mold I would recommend. I had just received my friend Jill Colonna’s new book Teatime in Paris and checked out her recipe for cannelés. It’s a bit different from Dorie’s in both quantity of ingredients and the way the dry ingredients are incorporated in the batter (see more on this below) so I tweaked Dorie’s recipe with some of Jill’s suggestions.

Results:

Again, our uncoated molds produced weird shapes – rising a lot out of the molds and not settling properly meaning they don’t stand up properly. The molds coated in a tiny amount of melted butter fared best. The interiors, however, were prefect:

I had enough batter leftover for 3 more so I tried again with just melted butter, tweaking the technique I’d been using and the ingredient quantities. Result?

By jove, I think I have it!

So without further ado –

10 tips for making canelés/ cannelés in silicone moulds

1. Air is not your friend. Too much air in the batter will cause them to puff up too much in the oven…….

2. Use the best quality silicone molds (read: thicker, not flimsy) that you can afford. The thin ones will get too hot too fast and produce inconsistent results no matter what you do and you’ll find yourself having to say “I don’t know” when people ask you if you can bring 60 of them to their party. Because you get different results every time.

3. Don’t fuss too much over the batter. In fact, treat it like you couldn’t care less if it works out or not and it might just cooperate 😉 My most successful “tweak” in technique was borrowed from Jill Colonna, author of the just-released Teatime in Paris whereby you make a paste from the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and flour and them gently whisk in the hot milk/ butter mix. This seemed to help with a less airy batter – when I tried adding the dry ingredients to the hot liquid I always had to whisk much more which led to more bubbles and air (see #1).

4. Rest your batter at least 12 hours, preferably 24 hours overnight. Gently stir it (with the back of a knife – you don’t want to whisk too much now it’s all settled).

5. Let your batter come to room temperature before you use it in silicone molds.

6. As you are heating the oven, melt some butter and lightly (ever so lightly, mind) brush the molds with the butter. Make sure it doesn’t pool in the bottom of the molds by turning the molds upside down on a cooling rack set over paper towel to drain excess butter out.

7. Contrary to popular belief, I have had much more success with room temperature molds (another tip from Jill). Maybe they don’t like to be cold then incredibly hot (I mean, I wouldn’t!) like they are if you freeze them (many recipes tell you to use cold molds) before you bake. Room temperature batter and room temperature molds produced the best looking (and best interiors) of all the batches – and the most consistent, even shapes…

8. As the cannelé are baking, you might want to keep an eye on them as they might rise slightly over the top of the molds. If need be, take a toothpick and gently coax the shapes down back into the molds but if your batter is the right consistency and your molds are cooperating you might not need to.

9. About 5 minutes before the cannelé are finished baking (maybe 10), pull the tray out and, with the aid of a toothpick, remove the cannelé from their molds and pop them back in the molds right side up. This will help the tops brown a little more (evenly). Be careful – the oven will be hot and so will the molds.

10. Let your cannelé rest in the molds (still right side up) for about 10 minutes before you take them out and place them on a wire cooling rack. They are best eaten at room temperature – I like them after an hour or so. They are best the same day you make them.

Directions

Bring the milk and the butter to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat and cool slightly, stirring occasionally to release some of the heat.

Place the sugar, flour, eggs and egg yolks in a small bowl and whisk gently until you have a soft paste-like consistency.

Pour in the milk/ butter and continue to whisk gently until you have a smooth liquid.

Add the vanilla and rum and give it one last stir (you don't want to whisk air into this batter).

Use a wire strainer, strain the batter over a glass jug, cover the jug with plastic wrap and refrigerate 12-24 hours.

About an hour or two before baking:

Remove the batter from the fridge, give it a gentle stir and allow to come to room temperature (or at least, not chilled).

Prepare the silicone molds by brushing with a little melted butter. Coat the molds sparingly and in necessary, turn the molds upside down over a wire rack placed over paper towels to drain excess butter from inside molds. Set aside (at room temperature)

Pre-heat oven to 450˚F.

When the batter is room temperature, give the batter one final stir and pour into the molds about ¾ full.

Place the silicone molds on a wire cooling rack on a baking tray and bake at 450˚F for 30 minutes.

Reduce heat to 400˚F and bake for a further 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the tray from the oven and, with the aid of a toothpick, carefully remove the cannelé from the molds and place them immediately back in the molds right side up.

Bake for 10 more minutes.

Remove molds from oven and place on a wire cooling rack for about 10 minutes before you unmold them and allow to come to room temperature on a wire cooling rack.

Best eaten the day they are made (after about 2 hours at room temperature).

by Mardi Michels, inspired by and adapted from Dorie Greenspan and Jill Colonna

Disclosure: I received a baking kit including silicone molds and sugar from Redpath Acts of Sweetness. I was not further compensated for writing this post.

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Please note: The product links from Amazon and Amazon.ca are affiliate links. If you click on these links and purchase the product I have linked to or any other product, I will receive a small percentage of the sale price which helps keep the eat. live. travel. write. household in ingredients to continue experimenting with cannelés.

57 Responses to How to make cannelés in silicone molds

Wow, Mardi! You are a super-trooper and likes are gonna find you around cannelé moulds… shining like the sun. That #projectcannelé was some project and bravo for finding your own method that you like best. I’m very honoured that you mentioned me in the same company as Dorie.
Perhaps you want a break from them just now but next time in Paris, let’s go on a canelé walk 🙂

There is so, so much practical/useful info here! I want to pin this post a million times and share it everywhere (and I will, slowly but surely!).
I completely agree about the quality of the molds and the thickness of the silicone. And I love that you opted for silicone and not copper (because for us to invest in a set of copper molds would take years, lol!).
I need to read this again, and then buy molds and make cannelés!

Thanks for your input. I did. indeed work extensively with the wax and did like you suggested but it is still very hard to work with – the wax hardens pretty immediately on the silicone. And quite frankly, not that easy for most people to get their hands on so it’s why I am recommending the butter route.

I have been following your progress with these on your Twitter/Instagram and I am so impressed with your determination and “never give-up” attitude. You have learned a lot and that you took all this time to share your findings in this post is lovely. I doubt I will every try to bake caneles but for those who do, this should be there “go-to” place before they even start to measure out their ingredients and prepare their pans. Congratulations on your success with caneles.

Amazing how such a simple, straightforward recipe can be anything but simple OR straightforward, no? I’m still struggling to find the perfect combination, but I think I’m pretty much almost there. Which is good, because my waistline cannot handle any more cannelés at this point! 🙂

Mardi and I were at a talk last night with Wylie Dufresne of WD-50 fame (after a screening of the delectable French film Delicatessen), and he spoke of the fun he has experimenting in the kitchen – and how no one should be afraid of making mistakes. All part of the learning, understanding how things work,….

Well, watching the whole cannel sessions, which in and of themselves are reminiscent of watching the macaron sessions circa 2011, reminded me of that.

Baking really is science with a dollop of art, and I’ve been fascinated (if not obsessed) watching it unfold.

However, I would be lying if I did not say I am delighted that I now have a secure source of cannelle, as I do macarons, chez nous. 🙂

Loved reading your adventure with cannelés baking! I was in London recently styling and photographing canelés for a new little French company and ended up eating a whole lot of them. They are such wonderful sweet treats, I have serious cravings for them, I must really get my hands on silicon moulds to satisfy that!

I figured I could add something regarding the use of beeswax. I just recently started using it when I came across it by chance in an organic grocery store.

Alright, so beeswax is a pain as it sets super fast. It will end up exactly like Mardi’s picture. I then remembered there was a canelé recipe In Dominique Ansel’s book (the guy that created the Cronut). He tells us to heat the molds (he uses copper of course) for 15 minutes before using the beeswax and pouring in the batter. It helps to achieve a nice crunchy exterior. I figured it would work for silicone also. It does!

I heat my mold for about 5min before brushing in the beeswax. These molds get so hot that you have ample time to coat them and pour in your mixture before the wax can set. I recommend turning your mold over on some parchment paper as you can easily reuse any wax that dripped on it.

Now the end result is pretty amazing. The beeswax gives the canelés an amazingly shiny and crunchy exterior. I recommend letting the canelés rest in their molds over a wire rack for 30 minutes when using beeswax. In this case I do not use your nice trick of unmolding and remolding towards the end. The exterior needs to set and harden in the mold for a beautiful result.

Thanks for your wonderful post on caneles. I have been trying to perfect them too. My current issue is that they keep “poofing” up beyond the molds and eventually flopping over. I’ve tried lowering the temperature, and also tried opening the door to cool them down when they puff too much. But so far neither has worked – either it still happens, or if I cool them, they overall don’t cook properly. Do you happen to have any tips?

What a superb tutorial Mardi
I have been wanting to make these for ages and I have just got the thick silicone mould and this is definitely on my baking list. Have you tried doing different flavours in them or chocolate coating them? is this the done thing?!! Or am I being a heathen

I still like paula-wolfert’s recipe best after testing many. She claims it is the original, with egg yolks only. The mixture cooks to a thin custard before you put it in the fridge for 24-48 hours. I have found a white oil mixture of mostly vegetable oil with a little bit of bees wax melted in it is best. Brush the silicone moulds but then tip them upside down to drain. There should be very little oil left on the moulds. Fill the molds almost full. They rise a bit but the mixture has no air in it so it rises only a little. The result is a very silky custard with no air bubbles on the inside and a very crunchy outside. I too experimented for months and this is as good as it gets, very easy. Use bake without any fan too. Silicone moulds are fine.

Thanks for all of this info. As you can see I did a fair bit of experimenting myself as well. I have not tried Wolfert’s recipe but am intrigued. Though authentic canelés do have air bubbles in the inside…

I just tried these at home and ended up burning the tops a tad, so second round I took it easier and paid more attention and they came out great! I love the dark rum flavor (not sure if that is standard for these or not as it’s also my first time making them).

I just made 8 in the silicone molds alongside 4 in nonstick molds. The ones in the nonstick molds popped right out but the silicone molds would not release the canneles. I did use butter method then freezing them before baking. Do you think that was the problem or I just didn’t let them cool in the molds long enough before flipping them?

My wife fell in love with canneles in Lyon 2 1/2 years ago. Last year she bought me a silicone mold for Christmas, but I was so intimidated by the mountain of lore that I never got around to it. Now thanks to the currently-raging #bombogenesis blizzard, I’m finally attempting this recipe!

I made two batches at two different times:
1) For the first batch, I filled every cup in the mold and followed these instructions pretty much to the letter, except for the bit about popping them upside down for the last 10 minutes. The corner canneles were just about perfect, but soft on the inner corners. The canneles from the inner cups were soft and yellow and hard to remove from the cups (so I could not turn them upside down). The flavor was great. I saved the remaining batter for a second attempt, but the mold needed extra cleaning because the canneles had not unmolded easily.
2) For the second attempt, I filled every other cup in the mold so I got 8 instead of 15. I also left them in an extra 5 minutes of so to be sure. I shouldn’t have – these came out easily and were brown all around, but were a bit overdone.
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I plan to try twice or three times more (one batch of this batter will make about 24 canneles in my mold) using the every-other cup method and shorter cooking time.
So far this recipe looks like just what I need, and my wife is very happy!

The next attempt met with greater success. I put the batter in every other cup for better heat transfer. I did 450 degrees for the first half hour, and then 20 minutes at 400. My wife thought they were a little hard on the outside, but after a few hours in a ziplock bag they were perfect.
I plan to try again twice – once at 400 degrees for 50 minutes, and again at 450 for 30 and then 15 at 400.
But for now she is ready to declare victory!

I did experiment with them but never wrote it up. The molds are so expensive (I bought mine in France where they were NOT expensive but for most people they are..) and I also found my results were a bit inconsistent there too..